Winch



March 25, 1952 5 GRQSCH 2,590,610

WINCH Filed Feb. 18, 1948 2 SHEETSSHEET 1 INVENTOR. 650/?65 5. 620501 ATTORNEY March 25, 1952 G. s. GROSCH WINCH 2 SHEETSSHEET 2 Filed Feb. 18, 1948 INVENTOR.

GEORGE S. GROSCH ATTQRn/EY Patented Mar. 25, 1952 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE;

WINCH George S. Grosch, Milwaukee, Wis., assignor to, Safway Steel Products, Inc., Milwaukee,.Wis., acorporation of Wisconsin Application February 18, 1948, Serial No. 9,079

9 Claims. (01. 254 '187) type may be seenin the co-pending application.

of Nelson et a1. Serial No. 764,828, now abandoned, assigned to applicants assignee, or in.

Benson, Patent No. 2,424,910. While the structures shown in the Nelson et a1. application and in the Benson patent provide desirable safety features, they are, nevertheless, open to improvement.

The present winch is an improvement over the structures shown by Nelson et al. and by Benson. The. swing stage winch according to this invention is a light, compact winch having the brake and gear mechanism enclosed in a sealed compartment: which prevents, unduewear due to. foreign matter. Furthermore, the handle stop mechanism may be employed at any time, and the brake mechanism may be disengaged to permit cable to be stripped from the drum rapidly but the winch may. not be used for raising or lowering during such time as the brake mechanism is disengaged.

Accordingly, an object of this invention is to provide a light, compact, hand-operated winch which maybe readily handled by one person.

Another object is to provide a winch having gears and a self-locking brake mechanism en closed in a. sealed compartment providing for better lubrication and freedom from foreign material.

A further object is to provide a hand operated winch havingnthreeseparate mechanical safety devices which, are so inter-related as to greatly facilitate operation.

A further object is to provide a simplemethod for disengaging the self-locking brake mechanism so that cable may be pulled freely off the drum. and yet prevent winding, of the cable on the drum while the brakeis disengaged.

Other. objects and advantages will be pointed out. .in, or be. apparent from, the specification and claims, as will obvious modifications of the single embodiment shown in the drawings in which:

Fig. Us a side elevation ofv thewinch with parts.

broken away;

Fig. 2 is a front elevation insectiontakenalong line.2--2 of Fig. 1 with parts broken away;

Fig. 3 isa front elevation of Fig. 1 taken along... line 3-3 showing the drum pawl and. handle,

stop in two positions; a

Fig. 4 is a sectionview of Fig. 1 taken along. line 44 showing the spider mounting for theplanetary gears shown in dotted lines;

Fig.5 is a section. taken. on line 5.5 of Fig.1

and shows the shaft pin-cooperating with the,

land inside the handle for limiting relative move, ment between the shaft and thehandle; and

Fig. 6 is a fragmentary section of thebrake parts as viewed in Fig. 1 but has the handle removed and the brake. mechanism locked. sov

cable may be strippedfrom the drum.

Referring to the drawings in detail, drum shaft I0 is nonerotatably mounted in frame [2 by. meansof two cap screws [4, l4. Sinceframe l2 carries at its lower end. stirrup It (only part.

of which: is shown) for the usualscaifold plat.- form, the frame and drum shaft l0- are-fixed with respect to the moving. parts of the winch mechanism. Cable drum l8 isrotatably mounted on bearings 20on both ends of drumshaft l0 and carries on its right-hand peripheral. edge, as viewed in Fig. 1, a ring .22 having gear.

teeth 24 on the inside and ratchet teeth. 26v formed on the outside. On the right-hand end of drum shaft I0 is an integral three-prong.

42. intoengagement with brake idler ratchet disk 44. which'willbe more fully. described hereinafter.

The planetary gears. 30 engage. ring. gear 24.

andsun gear 46. which is carried. by shaft 48. Theleft-hand endof shaft 48 isrotatably mount.-

ed in bearing 50inhole 52. in. the central portion.

of the .three-pronged. spider 28. Therig ht-hand portion ofv shaft 48 has screw. thread 54fformed.

thereon. A brake flange 56 is threadably mounted on shaft 48 adjacent sun gear 46to. form an,

integral part of shaft 48 and loosely carries ratchet disk 44 on theright-hand stepped face thereof. A handle fitting 58 engages the righthand. portion of the thread 54 and shaft 48 and is rotatably mounted in bearing 60 which'provides a. seat for a. cover plate'62jand'is rigidly Pawl 4B is mounted on theright-hand end of pin 34 and. is biased by springmounted in frame [2. Cap screws 64 hold cover plate 62 and ring 22 firmly on drum l8 for rotation therewith. The crank handle 66 is retained on handle fitting 58 by means of thumb screw 68. As viewed in Fig. 1, the large end of thumb screw 68 is screwed into handle 66 and pin portion 16 of screw 68 snugly fits within the cooperating hole in the handle fitting 58 but does not contact shaft 88.

When handle 66 is rotated in a clockwise direction, as viewed in Fig. 3 (when the handle is moved toward the viewer in Fig. I) handle fitting 58 will move to the left on shaft 48 until the handle fitting forces ratchet disk 44 against brake disk 56 to provide frictional engagement between the parts. When the slack is thus taken up, there is a direct drive through the brake mechanism, and the sun gear will be rotated in a clockwise direction. Since planetary gears 3!] are rotatable about their own axes, but not about the central axis; their rotation will be counter-clockwise causing counter-clockwise rotation of the cable drum to raise the winch and scaffold. If handle 66 is now moved in a counter-clockwise direction, handle fitting 58 will move to the right so there is no longer a frictional engagement in the brake mechanism. This will permit cable to It will be apparent that if some means were not provided for preventing excessive movement of handle fitting 58 to the right the fitting would eventually abut against and bind with bearing 60. Therefore, the outer end of shaft 48 is provided with a pin '12 which cooperates with land 14 on the inside of the handle socket (see Fig. to limit movement of the handle fitting with respect to the shaft and thus prevent binding between the fitting and bearing surface 66.

On spacer bar 16 provided in the lower portion of frame I2 is mounted pawl 18 which is biased by tension spring 80 into engagement with ratchet gear 26 formed on ring 22. Mounted between pawl 16 and the right-hand portion of frame 12 is a handle stop 82 which has a finger 84 normally in the path of lug 86 on handle 66, so lug 86 will abut finger B 3 and prevent rotation of the handle in the unwinding direction unlessthe stop 82 is lifted upwardly out of the path of rotation. Stop 82 is biased by gravity into the position shown in solid lines in Figs. 2 and 3 where the finger 84 rests against frame l2. On the left-hand portion of stop 82, as viewed in Fig. ,1, is another finger 88 which is adapted to strike the free end 90 of pawl 18 so the operator, when lifting stop 82 out of the path of handle rotation, merely has to raise the stop until it strikes free end 98 to rotate the pawl 18 about spacer bar 16 until it no longer engages ratchet teeth 26. The solid line position of pawl 18 and stop 82, as shown in Fig. 3, indicates the position for preventing cable unwinding, and the dotted line position shows the pawl and stop in the position occupied during the unwinding operation.

Operation To raise the scaffold and winch or to wind cable onto the drum l8, handle 66 is rotated in a clockwise direction to move handle fitting 58 to the left until ratchet disk 44 binds with brake disk 56 and the fitting to obtain a frictional drive through the brake mechanism. At this time the sun gear will be rotated in a clockwise direction and drive ring gear 28 and drum [8 in a counter-clock- Wise direction through the planetary gears and wind cable on the drum. During this time stop 82 may be moved upwardly by the operator out of the path of lug 86 on handle 66 or may merely be moved aside by the lug striking finger 84 with each revolution. If the latter procedure is followed, the stop will always be available as a safety factor to prevent counter-clockwise movement of the handle. While the cable is being Wound onto the drum, pawl '58, which is springloaded into engagement with ratchet 26, will merely ride over the teeth, but will act to prevent rotation immediately upon any tendency of the drum to reverse direction of rotation. The spring-loaded pawls 40 mounted on the planetary shafts 36 will also ride over the teeth on disk 44 but will be in operative position at all times to prevent reverse rotation of shaft 48.

To hold the scafiold at any desired position, pawl 78 engages ratchet teeth 26 to hold the drum against rotation while pawls 48 engage ratchet disk 44 to also hold the drum against rotation. Similarly stop 82 is in position due to the force of gravity to stop counter-clockwise rotation of handle 66.

To lower the scaffold or unwind cable from drum l8 stop 82 is raised until it strikes free end 90 of pawl 78 and moves the pawl out of engagement with ratchet teeth 26. At this time pawls 40 engaging disk 44 hold the drum against rotation. If the handle 66 is now rotated in a counter-clockwise direction, fitting 58 will move to the right (Fig. 1) until it is no longer in frictional engagement in the brake mechanism. This will now allow the drum to move in a clockwise direction and allow cable to unwind from the drum until the threads 54 on shaft 48 rotate faster than fitting 58 and screw into the fitting to move it back to the left to regain the frictional engagement. At this time the pawls 40 hold the disk 44 against rotation and consequently stop the drum rotation. It should be noted here that if the operator should lose his grip on handle 66 the automatic locking brake mechanism will prevent cable from unwinding. However, if handle 66 is continually rotated in a counter-clockwise direction, the frictional engagement in the brake mechanism will make and break at intervals dependent upon the speed of rotation of handle 66 to lower the scaffold in what actually amounts to a series of steps. Should it become necessary for any reason to utilize the additional safety features, the operator merely has to release stop 82 to allow tension spring to bring pawl 18 into engagement with ratchet teeth 26 and to allow finger 84 on the stop to move into the path of rotation of lug 86 on handle 66.

When it is desired to strip cable freely from the drum, the handle is rotated in a counter-clockwise direction to move fitting 58 to the right out of engagement with disk 44. It should be noted that stripping the cable from drum l6 presupposes that there is no load on the cable, for if the cable were loaded the brake mechanism would immediately proceed to look as set forth above. However, with no load on the cable, the fitting 58 may be moved to the right and retained there while thumb screw 68 is unscrewed from fitting 58 and handle 66 to permit the handle to be removed from the fitting. The small end 82 of thumb screw 68 is now screwed into fitting 58 at a point approximately diametrically opposed to the hole which pin fitted. The thumb screw 88 is turned into the threaded hole in fitting 58 to engage shaft 48 and prevent axial movement of the fitting with respect to the shaft. This retains the brake mechanism in its inoperative or disengaged position, and cable may now be pulled from drum l8 without the brake moving to frictionally engage again. Placing the holes in fitting 58 on opposite sides of shaft 48 and threading: but one hole insures against the operator attempting to utilize the winch for raising and lowering while the brake is held from engagement. When it is desired to transport or handle the winch on'the ground, it is desirable to have some means to prevent cable unwinding from the drum." For this purpose cable hook 94 is mounted on the left-hand side (Fig. 1) of frame l2 so the customary loop at the end of the cable may be placed under the hook and the slack then takenup by turning handle 66.

It will be evident that I have provided a simple compact winch having a planetary gear transmission and a self-locking brake mechanism which is both simple to operate and maintain and is completely enclosed within a sealed cham ber defined by one side of drum l8, ring 22, and easing cover 621 It will be evident that the gear ratio maybe} changed to give different mechanical advantages and rates of ascent and descent. In addition to the self-locking brake, there is provided a pawl engaging the drum and a stop engaging handle 68. All of these safety devices act at all times to prevent rotation of the drum in the cable unwinding direction, and the stop is so related with respect to the drum pawl that the single movement of the stop upwardly about its axis will automatically move drum pawl 18 from engagement with the drum ratchet. The brake mechanism may be rendered inoperative by removing thumb screw 68 and screwing it in the other side of the handle fitting 58 to hold the fitting axially fixed with respect to shaft 48. It will be evident that other means could be provided for disengaging the brake mechanism, but the above structure is preferred since it requires; complete removal of the handle and prevents negligent operation of the winch. Similarly other modifications of this winch structure will occur to those skilled in the art. Accordingly, I do not wish to be limited in my invention except by the scope of the claims.

I claim:

1. In a hand-operated winch, a frame having a winding drum rotatably mounted therein, a ring gear fixed with respect to the drum, a shaft having a sun gear fixed thereon, a pin having a planetary gear mounted thereon in engagement with saidsun and ring gears, a portion of said shaft being threaded, a self-locking brake mechanism mounted on said shaft and comprising a brake disk carried by said shaft, a handle fitting threadedly engaging the threaded portion of said shaft, a ratchet disk between said brake disk and said handle fitting, the pitch of said threaded portion being adapted to move said fitting into frictional engagement with said disks in response to a force tending to unwind cable from the drum, a pawl biased into engagement with said ratchet disk to prevent rotation thereof in the cable unwinding direction.

2. In a hand-operated winch, a frame having a winding drum rotatably mounted therein, a ring gear fixed with respect to the drum, a shaft having a sun gear fixed thereon, a pin having a planetary gear mounted thereon in engagement with said sun and ring gears, a portion of said shaft being threaded, a self-locking brake mechanism mounted on said shaft'and comprising, a brake disk carried by said shaft, a handle fitting threadedly engaging the threaded portion of said shaft, a ratchet disk between said brake disk and said handle fitting, the pitch of said threaded portion being adapted to move said fitting into frictional engagement with said disks in response to a force tending to unwind cable from the drum, a pawl biased into engagement with said ratchet disk to prevent rotation thereof in the cable unwinding direction, a handle for actuating said sun gear through said brake mechanism, means connecting said handle to said fitting, said connecting means being adapted to lock said disks and fitting with respect to each other. 5

3. In a hand-operated winch, a frame having a winding drum rotatably mounted therein, a ring gear fixed with respect to the drum, a shaft having a sun gear fixed thereon, a pin having a planetary gear mounted thereon in engagement with said sun and ring gears, a portion of said shaft being threaded, a self-locking brake mechanism mountedon said shaft and comprising, a brake disk carried by said shaft, a handle fitting threaded'ly; engaging the threaded portion of said shaft, a, ratchet disk between said brake disk and said handle fitting, the pitch of said threaded portion being adapted to move said fitting into frictional engagement with said disks in response to a force tending to unwind cable from the drum, a pawl mounted on said pin and being biased into engagement with said ratchet disk to prevent rotation thereof in the cable unwinding direction, a handle for actuating said sun gear through said brake mechanism, means connecting said handle to said fitting, said connecting means, being adapted to lock said disks and fitting with respect to each other, and a casing cooperating with said drum to enclose said gears and said, brake mechanism.

4. In a winch, a frame having a drum shaft non-rotatably mounted therein, a cable drum rotatably mounted on said drum shaft, a ring gear fixed with respect to said drum, a drive shaft rotatably mounted in said frame and having a sun gear mounted thereon, a planetary gear rotatably mounted on said drum shaft and engaging said sun gear and said ring gear, a handle for actuating said drive shaft to rotate said drum in a cable winding direction, self-locking brake means between said handle and said driv shaft, said brake means preventing unwinding of the cable from said drum when the speed of rotation of said handle is less than that of said drive shaft, means for rendering said brake means inoperative, and means preventing normal operation of the winch while said brake means at inoperative.

5. In a hand-operated winch, a frame having a drum shaft and a crank shaft mounted therein with aligned axes, a winding drum mounted on said drum shaft and having a ring gear mounted thereon, a sun gear mounted on said crank shaft, a manually operated handle adapted for rotating said crank shaft, self-locking means between said handle and said crank shaft for forming a driving connection therebetween, said self-locking means being responsive to a force tending to unwind cable from said drum to prevent drum rotation in the cable unwinding direction, a planetary 7 gear rotatably mounted on said drum shaft and engaging said sun gear and said ring gear, and a casing cooperating with said drum to enclose said gears and said self-locking means.

6. In a hand-operated winch, a frame having a winding drum mounted therein for rotationin either direction, acrank shaft mounted in said frame, a handle adapted. for actuating said crank shaft, means for transmitting rotational movement of said crank shaft to said drum, self-loci;- ing means forming a driving connection between said handle and said crank shaft and being operative in response to a force tending to unwind cable from said drum to prevent drum rotation in the cable unwinding direction, and means for rendering said self-locking means inoperative to allow the cable to be stripped freely from the drum.

7. In a hand-operated winch, a framehaving a Winding drum rotatably mounted therein, a crank shaft mounted in said frame, a handle for actuating said crank shaft, means responsive to a force tending to unwind cable from said drum to prevent drum rotation in the cable unwinding direction and to form a driving connection between the shaft handle and said'c-rank shaft, first stop means mounted on said frame and cooperating with said handle to prevent rotation. of said handle in the unwinding direction and being movable to a position permitting rotation in the unwinding direction, second stop means cooperating ,rith said drum for preventing rotation of the drum in the unwinding direction, both' of stop means being biased to their operative positions and being movable to their inoperative positions by movement of one of said stop means to its inoperative position,

8. In a hand-operated winch, a frame having a Winding drum rotatably mounted therein, a crank shaft, a handle for actuating said crank shaft, means responsive to a force tending to un- 8. wind cable from said drum to prevent drum rotation in the cable unwinding direction and to comprise a driving connection between the shaft and the handle when the handle is rotated to wind cable onto the first stop means biased to an operative position preventing handle rotation in the cable unwinding direction and being movable to a first inoperative position whensaid handle is moved in the cable winding direction, second stop means biased to a normal position preventing drum rotation in the cable unwinding direction and being movable to another position permitting unwinding rotation of the drum when the first stop means are moved to a second stop position.

. 9. In a hand-operated winch, a frame having a winding drumrotatably mounted therein, acrank shaft mounted in said frame, a handle adapted for actuating said crank shaft, means for transmitting rotational movement of said crank shaft to said drum, self-locking means forming a driving connection between said handle said crank shaft and being responsive to aorce tending to unwind cable from said drum to revert drum rotation in the cable unwinding direction, means for rendering said self-locking means. i: operative, and means for preventing .ctuaticn of the drum in a cable Winding direcion when said self-locking means inopera ive.

GEORGE S, GROSCH.

REFERENfiZ-SS CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

Ui-ZITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,252,174 Ramsey Jan. 1, 1918 2,424,910 Benson July 29, 1947 

